[AMERICAN SONGBIRDS]. Two framed original chromolithographs from the Zoology / Ornithology section of the "Reports of explorations and surveys to ascertain the most practicable and economic route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean

Washington DC: War Department, 1859. First Edition. Very good. Together two matted and framed chromolithographs (visible portion: ca. 245 x 190 mm; frame size: ca. 303 x 274). The are original prints, NOT reproductions! AN EXCELLENT PAIR OF ORNITHOLOGICAL CHROMOLITHOGRAPHS from the famed "Pacific Railroad Surveys" of 1853-1855.

"The ornithological studies produced from the Railroad Surveys were of such outstanding quality that they were republished in 1860 under the aegis of the Smithsonian Institution. Entitled 'The Birds of North America,' the illustrations and text by Spencer Baird are still considered to be among the best of the early ornithological works on American birds." (Brown University, The Robert S. and Margaret A. Ames Collection of Illustrated Books, online).

The plates here are:

Vol. X, Plate XXXV: Mountain (a.k.a. Arctic) Bluebird;
Vol. X, Plate XXXI: Hepatic Tanager (observed in the San Francisco Mountains of New Mexico).